Our Silent Vows
by Asahina Banana
Summary: After weeks of endless mourning, Corporal Levi finally had the chance to meet his beloved Petra Ral, whom he secretly had feelings for. The problem is, he can't see nor hear her and the only way for them to communicate is by paper. And she's going to go back to heaven in 7 days. How are the couple going to spend their final moments together?
1. Day 1

Since that day, the clock did not tick for Levi. It probably will not—no, it never will. Even though he managed to keep his sanity intact for the sake of his job, there was still a wire loose within him. The one that could never be repaired for eternity.

There was, initially that one being that could repair it for him. But she was gone forever. Every single piece of her vanished beyond the evening sunset—and not even the infamous Corporal from the Special Operations Squad could retrieve her. The decision he made on that day still pains him until this very moment. A lasting scar etched to his heart.

As he sat idly on his work station, Levi's eyes landed upon the calendar hanging on the wall to his right. It silently reminded him that it was already a month since she passed away. No—since she was slaughtered by a titan. A titan that was originally one of their kind.

Levi was highly aware that his paperwork was piling up due to his constant missions outside the walls. Back then, finishing all of these were a breeze because she was there to help. Not only helping them to finish on time, but also to make his day less boring. She'll make a cup of coffee every few hours or talk about trivial things.

He thought those moments would last forever. He thought it would, and at some point he took them for granted. The man with clean-cut, jet-black hair led out a long sigh. He was about to let himself succumb to the thoughts of her, but brushed it off quickly and went back to scribbling down things on the pile of papers.

When Levi became engrossed in his work, a transparent figure descended behind his seat. She had complete body parts, but all of them were see-through. Even her short, copper-brown hair was transparent as glass. Except those that were covered by a white blouse and tight, khaki pants with dark brown straps all over the thigh area. The figure loomed over Levi and led out a chuckle. "You're working hard, Corporal! Even though I know how much you hated paper works…"

Somehow, he couldn't hear nor see her. Not even feel her presence. The figure knew that was the price to pay when she begged the angels to go back to Earth. Despite that, her desire to see her corporal for one last time was enough to overlook the consequences.

The figure skipped towards the center of the small, circular room that was built with walls out of stone. She knew this room very well. Too well, even.

Her eyes scanned the room quickly and she smiled with satisfaction. It seemed that her memories served her right—this room hasn't changed even one bit. The pungent smell of soap used for removing every nook and cranny. The sight of a spotless, unused bookshelf on her left and a cupboard full with cleaning equipment on her right. Don't forget his tidily arranged spare uniforms on top of the cupboard.

Seeing this made her wish that she was still alive and well by his side. Her eyes turned droopy on that thought, but she shook her head to let it all go. _Don't dwell in the past, self!_

Afterwards she immediately recalled her purpose of coming here. The figure skipped to the rear of Levi's working desk and searched for something she could use to communicate with him. The angels said that she can still touch and hold things, but not feel them.

The first thing that came into her mind was to search for a pen. That was the only possible media for her. Unfortunately, the only pen that was available in the room was the one used by Levi—but that didn't stop her from taking actions.

She leaned forward on the desk, and clutched the tip of the pen. Levi's pupils widen as all of a sudden, the pen was stopped by thin air and flew into mid-air. He staggered backwards when it finally stopped on the paper—and began forming a few words by itself. He had seen strange occurrences during his missions, but it was usually titan-related. Either the titans were abnormal or they were extremely smart. To see a flying pen writing by itself was indeed, something completely brand new for the Corporal.

Levi's curiosity was piqued as the pen danced on top of the paper. He slowly moved his seat forwards and glanced quickly at what was on the paper.

"!" Boy, did he gasp. He even gasped in utter horror. The figure, visible to no one snorted as she had never seen the Corporal display so much emotions on his face before. Once she finished writing, she dropped the pen and waited for his response.

"_Good evening, Corporal! Guess who's back?"_

Initially, the French man was a bit hesitant to write something in response. It was a foolish act to reply to thin air. But somehow—his instincts told him to go with it and see what happens.

"_Identify yourself, ghost."_

The figure playfully snatched the pen from him and hummed a cheerful tune as she wrote back.

"_Petra Ral at your service, sir!"_

The Corporal's heart stopped beating at that instance. He held his breath for a few seconds as his mind was processing the name written on paper. _How could this be…? This is absurd._

He then clucked his tongue, looking vexed. "Oy, you fiend! Show yourself! You can't be Petra. She's dead exactly one month ago. Well, do amuse me though. Prove that you are really Petra Ral."

"That's easy!" Petra giggled, and her fingers were swiftly scribbling already.

"_Corporal, you drink your coffee black, with 2 sticks of cinnamon every morning. You dislike waking up to the sound of roosters. That's why around 3 years ago, you asked me to get rid of the roosters near our base since nobody wanted to do it. Oh, and I know you always use lavender-scented soap to clean our base and even yourself. Right?"_

There was a slight urge within Levi to argue with this invisible being, but he held them back. The truth was evident in every sentence. Still, it was quite peculiar for him to converse with his supposedly dead subordinate. No matter how much he secretly longed for her presence, an encounter like this was unfathomable.

Levi reluctantly nodded, and Petra cheered for herself on the side. If a third party were to see them right now, it would look weird because Levi was looking straight the whole time, while Petra was beside him all along.

"Ok, let's say I believe that you're Petra. My squad's Petra, who's now an invisible ghost. Tell me, how did you get here?"

"_I negotiated with the angels to let me go back down to Earth, because I want to see y—"_

Right before she was about to write the word 'you', she frantically crossed it out because the Corporal does not know she had feelings for him. She never got the chance to confess, after all. Levi lifted an eyebrow on that crossed out word, but Petra ignored it and resumed on writing.

"—_everyone. I want to see everyone once again. Jae__ger__, Commander Erwin, and also Arlert… How are they doing?"_

Slightly irked by her unwanted response, the Corporal decided to let his emotions flow on paper.

"_I don't know. Go figure that out by yourself. You have all the time to do so, don't you?"_

"_Eeeh, don't get mad at me, Corporal. And no, I don't. The angels only let me stay here for 7 days. Just 1 week and I'm gone for good."_

The Corporal winced upon seeing those words. He assumed that she's going to linger around for a couple more years. It didn't matter if she was invisible to him. Heck, it didn't matter what form she took. As long as Petra's here, it was more than enough.

"_Only one week?"_

"_Yep, too bad I did not get any extra time. So Corporal, I'll be under your supervision again for a short while. Please take care of me, sir!"_

She stood upright, balled her fist and raised it to her left chest. The salute was familiar to her—as almost half of her life was spent as a soldier. A remarkable soldier, even.

"Petra, did you salute me?" Levi asked in a flat tone, and turned his back against Petra. She ripped off the corner of a paper and drew a tick on it, before waving it in front of his squinted eyes.

Unexpectedly, he led out a dry chuckle. "Heh, that's good. If the angels are more forgiving, I'd like to see that salute once more. Anyways, I have a proposal to make for you."

"P-P-P-PROPOSAL?!" Petra exclaimed, jerking backwards in shock. "What is that supposed to mean, Corporal? Oh wait… He can't hear me. Right." She said, justifying herself. She picked up another piece of paper, hands trembling as she wrote down her words earlier. The paper gracefully landed on the Corporal's lap. His eyes scanned the contents like an eagle, yet his face remained expressionless.

"_I didn't imply it as a wedding proposal, you idiot." _Levi's fingers wrote back right below her squiggly, cartoonish handwriting. Compared to hers, his was angular and elaborate. The perfect fit for the tight and reserved Corporal.

"_I was about to say that I'll take you to see the others. But in return, you have to stay with me all the time. And don't let other people know about your current state. Deal?"_

Petra frowned and questioned the Corporal's intentions. It was beneficial for her and it complemented her original purpose of coming here, but she saw no reasons from him to do so. Little did she knew what was about to come—and what feelings were locked secretly within Corporal Levi. Of course, in the end she decided to abide by the Corporal's terms and gave her response.

"_Alright sir, I shall obey your orders!"_

_**Author's Comments**_

First of all, I thank you guys once again for reading my previous fanfics! All the reviews and faves make me really hyped!

This was… more of a one-shot thing I did in the middle of doing a big project orz =w='' I was inspired by Anohana and somehow by a few romance animes so I decided to write this down! I'm not sure if I'll make a lot of chapters but we'll see 8D

'Till then, adieu /o/


	2. Day 2 (Part 1)

The sun had rise again, just like how it should be. It marked a brand new day, and a sign for some that there might be something to look forward to. The latter seldomly crossed Corporal Levi's mind—but today was an exception. As well as the five mornings to come. That feeling had eased his heart for now, creating a sense of comfort within him.

Levi felt an immense aching, especially in his neck and the areas near his spine. It was only then he realized that he had fallen asleep on his desk, with a stack of papers acting as a temporary pillow. Thank goodness they were quite thick, so there was less pain on the side of his head.

"O-ouch..." Levi grumbled while rubbing his neck. As he forced himself to sit straight, a familiar, pleasant aroma aroused out of nowhere, tickling his nose. He glanced left and right—and was greeted with a cup of coffee on his desk, with two cinnamon sticks inside. Underneath the coffee platter was a piece of paper, which Levi knew exactly where it came from.

"_Good morning, Corporal! Here is your usual coffee for you, and I hope you enjoy it! Now I'm going to cook breakfast downstairs, so please wait here, okay?"_

A warm smile was drawn on the Corporal's face as a response to this greeting. As he leaned forwards to reach the cup, there was a small 'thud' somewhere below him. He bent his body downwards, and saw the distinctive light brown jacket of the Recon Corps slumping between the legs of the chair. That must've been the thing that fell from the chair, but how did it get there?

It wasn't long before he came into realization—that Petra was the one who wrapped this jacket around him last night. If that's the case, then it made sense why Levi didn't notice it was there. The thought of how his subordinate secretly took care of him triggered a small chuckle.

"That girl, seriously..." He muttered to himself, before taking a sip of his 'regular' coffee. Indeed, it tasted exactly like what he always drank every single morning. Every morning before a month ago, that is. Levi allowed the taste to seep in every inch of his mouth, and spent a few seconds savoring it before taking another sip. This cup could be one of the last cups of this bittersweet coffee specially made for him, therefore each drop mattered. He occasionally closed his eyes and breathed in the aroma of it, then let out a long, satisfied sigh afterwards.

The clock kept on ticking as the Corporal was basking in the warmth of the beverage, and still there was no sign of Petra in the room. There were a few boisterous cluttering noises downstairs, but Levi decided to ignore them. Perhaps it was just her preparing breakfast, he thought. After all, Petra Ral had been a natural klutz. That side didn't surface when she was fighting titans alongside her unit, the Special Operations Squad. When the last drop of coffee entered his throat, she was yet to be found. Or _felt_, at least.

The Corporal was always a man of his word, and if his secretly beloved woman was telling him to stay here, he'll stay. But more than half an hour had passed since he woke up, which concerned him on her whereabouts. By now his mind was split into two sides; one who was forcing him to check out what's happening with her and the other that wanted him to stay by his principles. A few times he convinced himself that he'll stick with the latter, but in the end his overwhelming concern for Petra was the one that lead him to the stairs outside.

For precautions, he loomed over the stairs to get a good view of the kitchen. A few dirty kitchen utensils were scattered all over the floor, but suprisingly the pantry was squeaky clean. On top of it was a wooden tray with a large silver plate, two smaller ones and a transparent, cylindrical glass filled with water. Levi assumed that it was the breakfast for him that Petra was cooking earlier, so he slowly walked downstairs to examine what his meal was. As he approached the kitchen on his right, his stomach growled in response to the delicious smell of freshly baked toast.

Corporal Levi was stunned at what awaits him on the pantry. On the center of a food tray was a large plate filled with classic scrambled eggs, three pieces of beef sausages and fresh baby tomatoes. Beside this plate were two smaller plates, one was filled with green melon slices and the other had two loaves of toast on it. There seemed to be some sort of filling between the loaves, so out of curiosity he picked up the top loaf to see the filling—and gasped at what his eyes saw. On top of a thick layer of butter was a sloppy writing using strawberry jam that spelled out, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CORPORAL LEVI"

"Wait... Today's... My birthday?" Levi mumbled, and quickly recalled on what date was already crossed out yesterday on the calendar. Since _that _day, he had seem to lost track of time. Fulfilling his upcoming duties as a soldier after that was not a difficult task. But remembering the date was like counting how many days had passed since she was gone. That, was something that even the infamous Corporal Levi could not do.

While he was occupied in his own thoughts, all of a sudden the door slammed itself open. That caught him off-guard—so he jolted backwards in reflex, resulting in his elbow hitting the pantry real hard. He yelped, "Ouch! What the..."

Standing on the doorsteps was a dumbfounded Petra, carrying a moss green colored gift box with a yellow ribbon wrapped around it. This was the first time she had seen the Corporal display so shocked. He had always been calm and composed, so indeed this was a first for her. The first for any of his acquaintances if they were here, possibly.

Petra cautiously tiptoed towards Levi, making sure that she did not scare him any further. Actually, she was more concerned about something else. She took out a small, red notebook and a pencil from the pocket of her pens, which was utilized to convey her concerns.

"_Corporal, why are you here? I thought I asked you to wait upstairs!"_

He had to squint his eyes to read the text, before averting his gaze from the notebook. "You were not back for quite some time, so I wanted to see what's going on."

She snorted directly in front of his face, then furiously wrote a reply to him. The notebook was later shoved towards Levi, leaving only 3-4 cm distance between his eyes and the paper. He pushed the book away to get a better view on what her subordinate had written.

"_Oh well, this was supposed to be a __surprise… So I guess you found out already, huh? I know this is a bit unusual and I never did anything like this back then… but anyways! Happy birthday to you, Corporal Levi! I hope you have a great year ahead!"_

The words "have a great year ahead" made him wince. _How am I supposed to have a great year when you can't? _Of course, those thoughts did not slip out from his mouth. It's not like he did not have the courage to say it, but it was too painful for him to do so.

"Well, thank you, Petra." Were what all he managed to say. Levi had hoped that it didn't come across as being too cold and curt in her ears.

"_No problem!" _She giggled as she wrote the reply. Normally, she wouldn't even dare giggle in front of her scary Corporal. The happiest face she had ever shown to the Corporal was a huge smile when she got recruited to his team, but that's about it. It was only limited to half-smiles and short, restrained laughter afterwards.

Without any hesitations, Levi then took a huge bite out of the home-made toast. The blend of the thick layers of butter and strawberry jam was undeniably marvellous. For the standards of the sweet-tooth Corporal, that is. From the sides, wide-eyed Petra was staring at him, anxious for what he had to say about her meal. He remained completely silent though as he downed the toast, next the scrambled eggs, tomatoes and sausages, then followed by the fresh melons.

The edge of Levi's lips slightly curved upwards. Petra gave a thumbs-up to herself, since that was the approval she was waiting for. A slight expression of delight from the Corporal was equivalent to a normal person's joyful laughter, so that curve was more than enough for her.

"Thanks for the meal, Petra. That was exceptional." Levi complimented her. "So now that I've finished eating... Where do you want to go now?"

A puzzled look was drawn on Petra's face. _"Eh? Go where... OH! Right, right. Hmm, can I visit our juniors? Jaeger, Arlert, Ackerman and the rest... What are they up to right now? Are they free?"_

"I don't think so, Petra. There are no missions issued for the Recon Corps today, but those rookies are undergoing another training camp in the military grounds right now. We still can see them from the sidelines."

"_I see... I wonder if it's another precaution in case another female titan shows up, huh? That could be pretty scary..."_

He grunted upon reading her words. "Like I care, really. Should've done it way back before _it _showed up. I wonder why some of our higher-ups are so laid-back, and I wonder whose fault is it if we keep losing people."

She was rather confused on what to reply back, but fortunately Levi's mouth moved faster than her hands. "...Oh well. I guess that's none of our business to begin with. So, we ready to go visit those rookies? I just need to clean these dishes then we're good to go."

"_Alright, Corporal." _That was her last reply before the Corporal gathered all the empty dishes around the sink and began scrubbing off every single thing that was on them. She wanted to help, but then her mind recalled that her Corporal would not want anyone to disturb with his cleaning.

"Argh, I thought the mood was so good earlier... I hope things can get better later... Well well, it will! Yep, it will!" Petra said, trying to convince herself.

_It will be a good day, self. It will. Just enjoy your time here! Besides I only have 5 days left here, huh... Better make full use of it! _

_**Author's Comments**_

Helloooo y'all thanks for dropping by all the kind reviews, faving/following this story and I'm sorry for the wait, but here's a new chapter! School's been giving me so much homeworks lately and mehh it's been hard to juggle between this, a big project I'm doing (I'm joining a Free! Fan Anthology! More details later /o/) and school. *sighs*

Anyways, this chapter is dedicated to my classmate Ruri, who just celebrated her birthday on the 10th of October! She's an amazing illustrator, and also the one who always asks about my progress on writing fanfics. Plus, also ready to scold me when I'm procrastinating orz. Happy belated birthday bro, stay awesome :D

So yeah thank you all for reading this chapter! I enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do! Please wait for the next chapter, and good day to y'all =w=b


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